Women journalists in Kashmir are redefining the Valley girl

In a place where allegations of mass rapes have been systematically denied and subjects like half widows are still taboo, the idea of a woman journalist is one that makes some employers nervous. Can you ensure the safety of a women reporter in Kashmir? Is she not more vulnerable than her male counterpart? Is it responsible for a media organization to send her out to cover stories that are potentially dangerous? Increasingly, women journalists are dismissing these concerns as patronising and demanding to be seen in the same light as male journalists.

“Women in Kashmir have always been taking up journalism, but previously a lot of them have had inhibitions in joining the field,” said Aliya Ahmed, a professor at the department of Media Education Research Centre, Kashmir University. “That’s partly because of the situation here and what the job requires, so even parents would be apprehensive and it was not just for girls.” She added, “Make no mistake: girls have always been toppers.”

Of late, the results are showing not just in classrooms, but also in the field. Gazi Maroof, 23, got her first job as a city reporter at Rising Kashmir four months ago. “I wanted to be a journalist and I did it, there is no-news in that,” she said simply.

Maroof is part of a growing number of women who are opting for journalism in this turbulent region. They’re a young, determined group of professionals. Syed Asma, 26, works as a reporter with the weekly English magazine, Kashmir Life. She started working in 2011 and journalism has been for her “a medium available to vent-out how she felt” growing up in Kashmir. Asma believes women journalists in Kashmir have an “edge” in covering what has been happening in the valley for the past 26 years. “For the last 20 years, we have been busy reporting casualties,” she said. “We have had no time to look back at the devastation.” This is what Asma believes women reporters, who are slowly growing in number, bring to the field and add to the reporting from Kashmir.

The conventional view is to consider women journalists for stories that revolve around women, but in Kashmir, with its history of violence, empathy is a huge advantage, said Asma. “When someone dies, he was a son, a brother, husband to someone,” she explained. “As women, we can connect better with these women who have to keep fighting. There are thousands and thousands of widows and half-widows in Kashmir. In a conflict-zone nothing is left untouched by suffering.”

The triggers are different for women who have decided to join this profession that can at times be dangerous. In 2008, when the Amarnath land row erupted, Shahana Butt was 21. “Sitting at home I was feeling choked,” she said. “I wanted to report the reality of what is happening in Kashmir.” Butt now reports news from Kashmir for Tehran-based news channel, Press TV. But reporting from a conflict-zone where unannounced curfews, encounters, killings and street protests are common is not an easy task, especially if you are a woman. “When I started, people would wonder why that girl is standing in the middle of the road holding a microphone and asking questions,” said Butt.

According to Butt, women in Kashmir have never been “bound to so-called gender specific roles”. However, finding acceptance as a journalist has not been easy because Kashmir is a place where some basic aspects of working for the media — like working late — prove to be impractical. “In a city where everything shuts down before 8pm, working late is difficult,” she said, talking about Srinagar. “It doesn’t matter who you are, if you are not home here before 7pm, everyone starts getting worried. And more so if you are a woman.”

Yet the fact is, being sensitive to local politics and culture is crucial to reporting from Kashmir. Yet there’s a fair amount of resistance to hiring women. Greater Kashmir, a leading English daily that also runs an Urdu daily and a monthly news magazine, has reportedly, ‘barred’ women journalists from their office. Why? “For not having a separate washroom for women at the premises,” which takes the idea of infrastructural issues to a whole new level.

When Farzana Mumtaz, 35, started her career as a journalist back in 2002, as a stringer for Doordarshan, there were hardly any women journalists in Kashmir. “I knew of one more woman journalist at time other than me,” she remembered. “She was working at Urdu Daily, Aftab. As a journalist here, you have to interact with both police and separatists, but that was not accepted by the society. However, things have improved. Today, there a number of women journalists around and more are coming into the field,” said Farzana, who runs a weekly English magazine named News Kashmir.

Although, more women are being hired as journalists, they remain a minority and usually work for local media. Among the top four national TV news channels — Times Now, NDTV, CNN-News18  and India Today TV — that have their bureau offices in Srinagar, not one has employed a woman journalist. The only woman working for a news channel is, in fact, Butt. Press TV is Iran’s state-owned news channel.

Among the top four national English dailies — Indian Express, Hindustan Times, The Tribune and The Hindu — all of which have their bureau offices in Kashmir, only two women journalists are on staff. Within Kashmir, there are more than 800 publications and the numbers improve when we look at English local dailies and magazines. Major titles like Greater Kashmir, Rising Kashmir, Kashmir Reader, Kashmir Life and Kashmir Times have hired 10 women journalists between them. Urdu dailies, on the other hand, including Aftab, Kashmir Uzma, Sangarmal don’t have any women journalists on staff at present.

According to Taufiq Rashid, who heads up the Hindustan Times’s bureau in Srinagar, the biggest challenge is often inside the newsrooms, from one’s own colleagues. Contrary to Butt’s take, Rashid said, “In Kashmir, women are still considered as outsiders in this field that’s has been entirely dominated by men. There is a lot of patronising. Women journalists are considered only good enough to cover women’s issues or maybe the health beat. I have had my fair share of jibes thrown at me by my own colleagues, but not everyone is the same. I have had the pleasure of working with some excellent journalists here who have always pushed me to go one step ahead.”

Sumaiya Yousuf, 24, covers defense and security for English daily Rising Kashmir. She’s of the same view as Rashid. “People sometimes don’t understand that if I’m at an encounter site, I’m there to do my job like everyone else. There is no need to be over protective,” she said.

The other problem that women journalists face in Kashmir is one they share with many, all over the world: difference in pay. Zehru Nissa, 34, covers health for the English daily Greater Kashmir. She said that at her first job as a reporter in Kashmir, she was offered “significantly less” pay than other male colleagues who were doing the same job. “I didn’t take that. I made sure I get what others were getting,” she said.

However, despite all these troubles and the limited space offered to women journalists in the valley, journalism is increasingly becoming a viable career option. “Women journalists across the world have proved their mettle,” said Professor Ahmed. “Women journalists are reporting on ISIS, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, and Libya, so there is no question of if they can.”